03 V70 T5 AC issues, blows warm

Bobg · Post by **Bobg** » 14 May 2012, 14:35

The AC in my 03 V70 T5 started blowing warm air after sitting in stop and go traffic. I took it to the shop, it was 2 1.2 lbs low on freon. evacuated and recharged Freon, 2 days later, while sitting in stop and go traffic again, The AC started to blow warm air again. made it to my destination, the car sat for 20 minutes and when I restarted it, the AC blew ice cold again and worked fine the rest of the day. What do you think is going on ? I replaced my broken volvo radio with an after market radio, I had to add coolant the other day as well (which sits right over the top of the AC valve) . It seems as if I had to "reboot" the car to get it to blow cold air again. What do you think ?

Rocky · Post by **Rocky** » 15 May 2012, 10:42

Hope it wasn't freon!
Pretty obvious you have a leak. The shop should have the gear to spot the leak. My guess is that your condenser suffered stone damage or similar and needs replacing

repacs0103 · Post by **repacs0103** » 15 May 2012, 10:50

I had a similar issue on my S40. The P1 cars are known for this. Over time the compressor clutch wears and the electromagnet can no longer maintain engagement as the compressor and clutch heats up. Ours would blow ice cold for about 20 minutes then go out. Once it cooled off it would work fine again. I pulled the clutch off and removed some of the shims on the mounting bolts, effectively taking up the excessive slack in the clutch, and now it the magnet is strong enough to maintain engagement. I'm not sure if the P2 \'s suffer from similar issues, but that sounds like what you're dealing with if it blew cold again upon restart.

One way or the other something is disengaging the compressor; be it a weak clutch, pressure sensor or otherwise.

Post by **DGM** » 15 May 2012, 12:23

I would go along with "repacs0103" analysis and suggest that you have a look at the compressor clutch clearance.

It is common issue on high mileage cars.

To help you I include this well written document on the subject. It shows how to remove the clutch to adjust the clearance by removing shims. I don't recall where I found the original document. The name of the author is mentioned. Look also in the repair database of this site for more clues on how to fix it.

Volvo-850-S70-V70-AC-Fix[1].pdf: (544.82 KiB) Downloaded 414 times